With some game developers you know what to expect. They make a certain type of game, and they stick to that model, building on and exploring what can be accomplished with that foundation. Before now, I would have said that indie UK studio The Chinese Room fitted that description, having made one of the all-time narrative exploration greats Dear Esther, followed by Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.

Granted The Chinese Room became a Sumo Digital studio after the release of those titles, but their most recent game is something quite different. Introducing Little Orpheus, a technicolour side-scrolling adventure, published by Secret Mode.

If the name Little Orpheus sounds familiar at this point, it’s because the game actually originally released back in 2020 through Apple Arcade. Little Orpheus is generally regarded as one of the best titles on Apple’s gaming subscription service, as well as on mobile in general. It certainly has the accolades to support the claim. Now, Little Orpheus’s period of platform exclusivity is evidently over, and the game is coming to PC and consoles, giving more players a chance to experience its substantial charm.

Sweetening the deal is that The Chinese Room has rebuilt and remastered Little Orpheus for this month’s re-release, creating a definitive edition that features hi-res textures, new animations, and enhanced graphics. Also included is playable content that was only bonus material before.

One of the greatest drawcards of Little Orpheus is how fully the game embraces its stated inspirations: the works of Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Burroughs, plus pulpy Hollywood adventures like Flash Gordon and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. If you love these imaginative stories, crammed with strange creatures and settings, Little Orpheus captures that same wondrous sense of escape from our reality.

In Little Orpheus, which takes place during the Cold War Space Race, Soviet cosmonaut Ivan Ivanovich is sent on a mission, not to the stars, but to the centre of the earth. Separated from Little Orpheus, his atomic-powered exploration capsule, Ivan finds himself in a series of fantastic forgotten worlds, filled with marvels and perils. Over the course of nine chapters, Ivan must traverse these environments, find his vessel, and make it back to the surface. Oh, and thwart a deranged villain who has made Little Orpheus central to their plans for world domination.

At least this is what Ivan claims once he emerges three years later, in 1965. Little Orpheus takes the form of a story within a story, as Ivan – a mediocre Cosmonaut and the world’s most unreliable narrator – shares his tall tales with the sceptical general assigned to uncover the truth about what happened.  

Given the nature of Little Orpheus, it’s not really surprising that one of its standout aspects is its colourful and creative backdrops. These range from primordial jungles stalked by dinosaurs, to mystical desert ruins that exist outside of time, a baffling inner (not outer) space, and even the squicky insides of a whale. What is surprising, though, is another highlight: the banter and bond that forms between Ivan and the general. Little Orpheus is sharply written and effectively performed. Ivan peppers his account of what happened at the centre of Earth with anecdotes about his oddball family (like cousin Pavel and his insatiable hunger for eggs), exasperating the general, but there’s also a gradual build-up of heart to go with the humour.

Speaking of heart, at a game-making level, Little Orpheus exhibits incredible attention to detail. Its homage to far-fetched film serials means that the game chapters come with a retro opening credits sequence (sadly just one), cliff-hanger endings and “Next time on Little Orpheus…” voice over, in addition to appropriate Soviet flavour to the music and dialogue.

There’s a lot to appreciate and enjoy about Little Orpheus. Unfortunately, the gameplay isn’t one of these aspects. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the player requirements, to be fair, but it feels lacklustre – or perhaps a better way of putting it is simplistic. Little Orpheus has been described as a casual game, and it certainly comes across that way.

As a conventional side scroller, you run, jump, and occasionally interact with items like levers and platforms to reach otherwise inaccessible areas. Providing moderately more challenge, Little Orpheus includes sections with timed jump requirements, extended races/chases, stealth, and basic quick time events. Again, there’s nothing wrong with any of this. However, barring the ninth final chapter – which was originally bonus content – the gameplay never fundamentally changes or ups the difficulty.

For roughly three to four hours you’ll be doing pretty much the exact same thing in different surroundings. If you’re playing Little Orpheus on mobile, ticking off one or two 30-minute chapters during your daily commute, the repetitiveness is probably less notable. That’s not the case during longer uninterrupted play sessions on the couch.

While it’s not especially difficult, Little Orpheus does at least encourage replayability with its Lost Recordings Mode. On completing a chapter, you can revisit it to gather orbs scattered around the level. These collectibles unlock making-of content, with comical commentary by Ivan, as well as alternate outfits for our hapless hero.

In the end, Little Orpheus is visually inventive, immersive and immensely likeable. That’s an applaudable achievement, as few games manage to tick all those boxes. The Chinese Room have succeeded in crafting an interactive flight of fancy to distract people from the gloomy real world for a few hours. Veteran players of adventure games, platformers and side scrollers will still be able to appreciate this part of the experience, even though they’ll likely wish the game was less like the old movie serials that inspired it, and took its action off the safety rails it’s clamped to.

Little Orpheus releases tomorrow, 13 September 2022 for PC (via Steam, Epic Games Store), PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One/Series consoles and Nintendo Switch. It’s also available on mobile for iOS devices through subscription gaming service Apple Arcade.


Little Orpheus review

Crammed full of visual creativity, humour and a substantial amount of heart, Little Orpheus is a love letter to the fantastic pulp adventures of yesteryear. It’s easy to like. Pity, though, that its generally one-note gameplay isn’t as satisfying as the rest of the experience.

 7.5
Little Orpheus was reviewed on PC